Having read about this event over the years I decided I really must get organised and have a weekend in France with bikes, after all we think nothing about a 150 mile trip to a rally in the UK so why not add some interest a ferry and head to France. It was such an easy sell to my good lady too who quickly booked a guest house (we shall skip over the experiences when there) and found an ace deal on ferries so we were set.
Pecquencourt lies 80 miles south of Calais in the Nord de Calais region of France, where unfortunately for those of us with less than limited schoolboy French most locals speak a heavy dialect and know less English than my French. My skills at grinning inanely and pointing got me out of a lot of problems
I cannot think of any event in England which matches this event, the main show and events are held in and around a showground, but the whole town is taken over by motorcycles with roads closed and outside bars, which despite the cold, in the sunshine were an excellent way to spend time with a beer as all manner of machinery passed by.
The custom hall had some stunning machinery and this year a great presence by UK builders. One central plinth completely showcasing the best of our builders with Lamb Engineering, Rolling Art designs, Destiny Cycles and Robbies amazing NSU amongst others. There were also some freaky bicycle style creations, some loony jet bikes and some which just made you scratch your head, and unusual sissybars seem to be making a comeback brilliant. I do not have a list of winners but do know that Larry Houghton of Lamb engineering won prizes for paint on Circus of speed. Also cool was having a bar directly above the hall where you could gaze at the world go by below.
Other tents had shopping, including some amazing art sellers, classic bikes, masses of vintage sidecars and enough rat bikes to keep my good lady happy along with food including chocolate and banana crepes (it being an official non diet weekend) and awful coffee. Outside stunt shows and freestyle motocross made for a great way to spend time.
In the village I also found a few UK registered bikes and managed skilfully to avoid being dragged into a game of nails. Now if you haven’t been to an event abroad you may not know of this game, involving a huge log transported in a wheelbarrow, a selection of nine inch nails and a club hammer. Nails are allocated to each person and tapped in to an equal height, and then each contested first hits their own nail and then it gets tactical as you can hit any nail. The first nail completely buried means that person buys the drinks and the last nail down buys the next nail. Sounds easy but try not to be first or last.
The show also has a concert in the evening and carries on over two days, forget the language barrier, the fact the rest of France is closed for the weekend, the awful coffee and look at the listings for events in our nearby European neighbours it certainly makes a great change.
Lots of albums and a video
